I went in for a basketball...

The other night Wacky Zacky’s basketball got a hole in it. We suspect Scoozoo, the dog, did it to get even after being tackled by Wacky Zacky for the tenth time that evening. Wacky Zacky is obsessed with basketball and I knew we had to act fast! The following morning we went to Toys R Us in search of a mini basketball to go with his mini hoop. I mistakenly told Wacky Zacky what we were doing and he began to obsess about basketballs. Once in the store I strapped Zany Janie in the cart by the handle and put Wacky Zacky in the basket. There was no way I was going to allow Wacky Zacky to walk which would inevitably result in him breaking free and going on a toy frenzy. We went down the doll isle and I was promptly told “No sissy, basketball!” as Wacky Zacky thrusted his pointing finger to the back of the store. Geeze, he must have a basketball radar because even I didn’t know where the balls were located. When we got to the first sports gear isle I could feel the excitement radiate from Wacky Zacky as he smelled the rubber and saw several different shapes, colors and sizes of balls. Finally I found some that were a little bigger than the original one and decided this one was better than nothing. I wasn’t sure if it would fit through his hoop but at this point there was no way I was going to attempt to leave the store without a ball. There were three different colors of this ball-blue, red and orange. Since basketball is so important to Wacky Zacky I decided to let him choose the color. Big mistake! He appeared to choose the one he wanted and as soon as I started to put the other two back he was say “No! No!” and closely scrutinize each one again. After the fifth cycle of this I was starting to lose my temper. I had to remind myself of the quote I frequently asked my ex-patients “Don’t ask why is this happening to me, ask what am I learning from it?” As I smile at Wacky Zacky through gritted teeth and try to keep my cool he thrusted the red and blue ball towards me babbling something that I can only assume was “I’ve decided on the orange basketball Mommy!” Other people were in the isle ahead of us so we turned around and went down the next isle to head for the cash registers. On a shelf in that isle smirking down at us was a two-pack of mini basketballs the exact size of the ball with the hole in it! I knew that there was no way Wacky Zacky would give up his orange ball. He had spent over five minutes picking it out and he had a firm grip on the ball. I decided we would get the two-pack of balls and if he lost interest in the other ball it would find its way out of our cart. As we made our way to the front of the store I decided to get some play sand for our empty sandbox. I took the ticket for the sand and headed to the cash registers glancing in the cart to see if I could sneak the larger ball out of the cart. I found that Wacky Zacky had torn open the two-pack of balls and was firmly gripping all three balls while grinning and repeating “basketball” over and over. So I did what any mom would do to prevent an explosion in a public place. We purchased all three balls and the sand. The ticket for the sand did not indicate how much it weighed. I waited near the exit doors and a young guy came from the back struggling to carry our bag of sand on his shoulders. I thought he was going to carry it to the car but he moved to put it in the cart. I quickly pulled Wacky Zacky out of the cart and he plunked the bag down. Wacky Zacky immediately started screaming for his basketballs. I leaned in the cart and said “Wow 50 pounds! I hope I can get it into the car!” The guy said “Yeah, it’s heavy!” and walked away leaving me with one screaming toddler, a baby, three basketballs and a 50 pound bag of sand. I walked to the car pushing the cart with one hand and leading a screaming toddler with the other. I did get the sand in the car by myself but I couldn’t believe I went in for a basketball and came out with a headache and a sore back!

Here’s Wacky Zacky grinning with all three balls

Zany thought of the day: Even the mundane things appear so exciting and fun when looking through a child’s eyes. When was the last time you became excited about something that others might think was mundane?